League members approve new international relations positions. (Report on Trade and UN Updates).

During the 2000-2002 biennium, League members tackled two hotly-debated international topics--trade policy and the International Criminal Court (a component of the UN update). In doing so, they also initiated a program of systematic review and update of existing LWVUS positions and tested a new method of reaching member agreement on an issue.

Convention 2000 delegates had agreed that the League should review and update its 1973 position on Trade and its 1977 position on the United Nations. For each update, a task force of state and local League representatives was recruited to work with LWVUS Board and staff to guide the update process.

Early in the biennium, the board decided to provide background information on the two topics directly to League members and to seek concurrence on proposed new trade and UN positions from individual members via response forms in the National Voter. Substantive articles on the topics appeared in the National Voter, and much supplemental information was posted on the LWVUS website. Two listservs were also established to provide still more information and encourage discussion among members interested in a more in-depth exploration of these issues.

In addition, because of the controversial nature of the issues involved in the trade update, the Trade Update Task Force solicited member input throughout the process, via surveys in the Voter and discussion questions sent to all Leagues.

The task forces developed proposed new positions on trade policy and on the United Nations, and the LWVUS Board submitted these to the membership for concurrence. A separate question on the International Criminal Court (ICC) was submitted with the proposed UN position. Detailed concurrence kits on the two topics were sent to all Leagues to assist them in holding discussion meetings for interested members.

In April 2002, the Board reviewed members' responses to the trade proposal and determined that concurrence had indeed been achieved. Then in June, the Board determined that the membership had also concurred with the proposed new position on the United Nations, including the statement of support for the ICC.

The new trade position represents a balanced approach to trade policy, recognizing both the value of trade and the need to address the special needs of developing countries and press for progress on key social and environmental goals. The new UN position reaffirms the League's support for a strong, effective United Nations, details high-priority areas for emphasis for UN work and endorses a broad range of strategies to address threats to world peace today. The new position statements are posted on the Members site at www.lwv.org.

Concurrence Results

                            Trade Policy     United Nations

                                              UN position

Margin of acceptance

Strongly support               44%                73%
 Accept                        44%                22%
 Do not accept                 10%                 3%

Level of participation

 Number of members            5,000              4,480
 Leagues represented           590                600

Diversity of participation

 States represented         48 states;    50 states; DC; and
                            DC League     U.S. Virgin Islands
Satisfaction with process

 Use in future updates         68%                73%
 Do not use in future          14%                11%

                            United Nations

                            ICC statement

Margin of acceptance

Strongly support                 62%
 Accept                          25%
 Do not accept                    9%

Level of participation

 Number of members
 Leagues represented

Diversity of participation

 States represented

Satisfaction with process

 Use in future updates
 Do not use in future

Numbers do not include "no answer given" and therefore do not total
100%.